


Primal

by oonajosefina



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Drug Use, F/F, F/M, Zoo, side Ziam
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 05:59:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3717751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oonajosefina/pseuds/oonajosefina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A zoo Larry AU</p><p>Louis hates his job in the zoo and spends his nights smoking pot with Zayn until he realises that maybe the three coworker hippies aren't that bad after all.<br/>Especially the tall curly one with the spider bambi legs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Primal

**Author's Note:**

> This is just the introduction, or was meant to be, until I got carried away. Proof read by my dyslexic boyfriend, so.  
> Please let me know what you think :).x

”For god’s sake, _Meryl_ , did you _seriously_ have to fucking-“ Louis shuts up abruptly as he notices a woman looking at him, outside the paddock, with a rather shocked and unimpressed expression on her face. To her left stands a child, no older than five, giggling and pointing at the llama. The bloody bitch of a llama that just spat on Louis’ face for the fourth time on that godforsaken day. All Louis did was check that she still had hay in her feeder, and _gosh,_ sometimes he really hates his job. He watches with a scowl on his face as the mother ushers the grinning kid towards the big cats’ cages. “Fucking hell, Meryl, I'm turning you into a jumper the next time you do that.”

Louis’ day has not been going well. He overslept and had to run to work without breakfast or taking a shower, or even saying goodbye to his loved college footy trophies. He didn’t have time to quiff his hair like he usually would either, so he'd had to steal a ridiculous looking, sparkly headband from El’s locker and use it to push his unruly hair back, off his face. His unruly hair that he _had_ promised his mum he’d get sorted out, like, two months ago on Skype, but. He’s a busy man, okay? Thankfully, El seemed to be fine with Louis’ little crime, maybe laughed a bit but Louis couldn’t really bring himself to care. It’s not like his job was the most amazing, poshest, cleanest one out there anyway. Might as well look the part.

By lunch time Louis has been spat, stepped or shat on at least twelve times by Meryl and her other llama friends and he has not been enjoying it in the slightest. In addition to that, he’s known all morning that he’ll have to bear through lunch without Zayn because he’s refusing to leave his favourite lizard’s terrarium for some reason, like, baby lizards or something. Zayn is weird like that. Way too invested in reptiles and looking hot, if you ask Louis, but Louis loves him and that’s all that matters. Zayn is basically the only person he can stand on the planet. Besides his mum, obviously.

When the digits on his ugly waterproof digital watch finally show 13:00, he plods down to the staff building, only to find the three idiots sitting there, cheerfully chattering and munching away on their weird, healthy salads. Well the two others are; the tiny blond one is eating chicken nuggets. “Who even eats chicken nuggets for lunch? Aren’t they cold? Ew?” Louis asks himself, even though he _knows_ he’ll answer the question himself – “You’re envious, you idiot. Go eat your boring, stupid sandwich.” That’s something Zayn would say. Louis does not miss his best friend.

Louis doesn’t like the plant-eating hippies at all – the Irish blond one is so loud and laughs all the time and the muscular one just looks like someone from a firefighter porno, or maybe a daddy kink one, and the tall one is just so _ugh_ , and so curly, and so tall, and awkward, and somehow so goddamned _pretty._ Louis does not like them or their weird humour or the fact that they seem to always be so bloody happy. He doesn't get them, how they’re always cheerful and having fun. “This is work, for god’s sake, this isn’t meant to be fun,” he thinks to himself as he slouches on the uncomfortable chair by the dirty table covered in tags.

After finishing his boring, bland cheese and tomato sandwich, Louis drags his feet back to the camelids 'paddocks. He flips the bird into the general direction of the llamas and makes his way to the camels instead. “Hi, Stanley,” he mutters to his favourite one, the youngest camel of the group of three. The camels are his favourite, so gangly and silly and friendly, the exact opposite of Meryl and her rude side bitches.  Maybe Stanley could be his best friend. After Zayn of course.

The rest of the day goes slowly, nothing exciting happening as per usual. The zoo is dead, like always, with no people around to begin with. There never is, just the occasional school day trip every now and then, a few families on their days off. The only reason it hasn’t gone bankrupt is the annual, disgustingly large donations from some ancient, filthy rich guy called Cowell. He, allegedly, met the love of his life in the zoo right after inheriting a fortune, or maybe five, and wants the zoo stay as it was. So it does.

“Honey, I’m home!” Louis yells as he slams the door shut and hangs his keys on the door handle. He slips off his dirty, torn up Vans and walks to the smoky living room where he finds Zayn sitting on the floor with what seems to be a makeshift bong in his hands, surrounded by sweet-scented smoke. “What happened to the bong?” his question catches the dark boy’s attention, and he slowly turns towards Louis with a calm expression on his face, eyes glossy and tinted red. “Your cat dropped it.” “I don’t have a cat?” “Well then it was someone else’s.”

Louis scoffs, rolls his eyes and plops down onto a cushion on the floor and makes grabby hands at the creation his best friend is holding. Zayn passes it along and Louis takes a few drags, already feeling his body and mind relax. “So,” he starts, looking up at Zayn after a few minutes of comfortable silence. “What’s up?”

He can tell by the expression on Zayn’s face, the way his shoulders are slumped, that something’s wrong. It’s 4 pm on a Thursday and Zayn is blazed, of course something is wrong. They might be reckless but they are not completely, idiotically irresponsible.

“M’babies died,” Zayn murmurs into his hands, trying to light a cigarette. Louis reaches forward and lights it for him, not caring about shaky hands or teary eyes. “The lizards, yeah? Want to talk about it?” Zayn nods and tries to stifle a sob into his sleeve. He knows Louis doesn’t care, that Louis gets him, but it’s still a sore spot.  “The mum, she…" He whimpers. “She, she fucking ate the other one, man, I’ve never seen her like that, she’s my Perrie, she wouldn’t do something like that but she just did, she ate her baby? And the other one was born dead. We lost both of them, Louis, both of my babies!”

Zayn is wailing now, and Louis wraps a soothing arm around him. “You didn’t lose your Perrie, you’ve still got your Perrie, bro, it’s okay, you’re okay.” He snakes his other arm across Zayn’s head on his lap to grab the bong before he continues. “I know it sucks, man, I was the same when Alberto passed, but you’ve still got the rest of your lizards, and the snakes, and the frogs. You’ll be fine, bro, it’s fine.” He remembers the day his previous favourite camel died. He was so sad, he got drunk and cried for eight consecutive hours. Two days later they got Stanley, though, which helped Louis get back on his feet.

Louis can feel Zayn nodding into his shirt, his tears smearing the fabric, soaking it all the way to the tattoos decorating his chest, but he doesn’t care. He holds Zayn there, listens to his blabbering about reptiles of all sorts, and lets the weed soothe his mind. They stay like that for hours until Zayn gets hungry and Louis gets up and gets them crisps, and they eat, and Louis listens to Zayn going on some more about baby lizards and Perrie.

It’s a very typical evening, really. It’s not always quite as emotional, but it is always just Louis and Zayn, weed and beer and crappy food. That’s how it always has been, ever since they were 15. At 18 they moved in together, after both getting a job at the zoo. Now, 5 years later, after a lifetime of being best friends, bros for life, they’ve pretty much evolved into one being. Louis feels lost without his Zayn, and, well, Zayn is always hot and mysterious and held-together, but he says he needs Louis, so that will have to do.

Zayn has helped him through so much shit he’s lost count, but Louis has been there for Zayn as well. Like when Zayn’s family practically disowned him because of a published picture of him making out with a guy, after his first pet lizard died, and then the second one. And Zayn was there for Louis two years ago when everyone thought he was dating Eleanor so he accidentally outed himself with no intention to do so. It shocked him more than anyone else, really, but it still was a sting, and Zayn was there to hold him through the crisis. They’re bros for life, and Louis couldn’t be more grateful for that. After all, he doesn’t like other people so he’d be very much screwed without Zayn.

Forty-three minutes after midnight, Louis tucks Zayn in to bed, makes sure his lizard has got water in her bottle, and stumbles into his own room. He struggles his way out of his jeans, falls onto the bed and is asleep within a second of the landing.

 

 

Friday morning meets a surprisingly well-rested Louis. He actually has the time to fix breakfast for himself and Zayn, take a shower, sort out his hair and find a clean pair of boxers. It’s a good morning.

They make it to work well on time, despite Zayn’s moping, and go for a smoke with their cups of tea before it’s time to start their shifts. Just as Zayn is finishing a story about how a snake had swallowed a rabbit that was still alive for some reason, the blond Irish bloke shows up from around the corner with a grin splitting his face. “Hey, you two!” He greets them as he gets closer, a weird, happy sort of bounce to his step.

“It’s the zoo’s fiftieth birthday today, there’s a party tonight, at the pub there next to the gate, you two coming, right?” It all comes out really fast, and Louis feels confused, and then the bloke is gone, and he just stares at Zayn, baffled as ever. “Well I sure didn’t know that.” “Me neither, you wanna come?” Louis scrunches his nose and shrugs, which makes Zayn chuckle. “We’ll see. Fuck off to work then, see you at lunch.” “You too, knobhead.” "Twat." "Cunt." "Love you. "Always babe." And then he's gone.

The day isn’t too bad, to Louis’ surprise. Meryl behaves herself, and so do the other llamas. Louis gets to spend a good two hours grooming Stanley and spending time with him, and he’s very happy. Zayn is still sad about the baby lizards during lunch, but he makes Louis go with him to the reptile house to look at Perrie. “Look, Louis, she’s being so affectionate, she’s so cute” he coos with the lizard on his lap, and Louis can’t help but smile at his friend’s love for her. “That is cute, I’ll give you that. Very cute, Zayn.” “I know, right.” Zayn shoots his signature irresistibly cute smile at Louis and he knows Zayn will be okay.

On the way back home, they pop into a shop to buy a couple of beers, because “I can’t possibly go to that party without being at least a bit drunk, Zayn, I mean it and I know you can’t either.” They share a joint at home before getting ready, and are comfortably buzzed on the disappearing effects of the weed and alcohol as they get to the pub.

Turns out, everyone under the age of thirty is already more or less blitzed as well. The girls, Eleanor and Jade and Sophia are dancing on the non-existent dance floor, the three guys are being their disgustingly cheerful selves at the bar, and even the older people seem to be enjoying themselves.

Louis and Zayn make their way to the bar to get drinks, trying to dodge the looks anyone might be giving them, and order a pint each. When they turn around to go and find a table, there’s something, no, someone blocking their way. “Hi, you two made it!” It’s the tiny blond again, this time accompanied by the fireman and the curly haired spider bambi. Louis fights back a groan and instead forces a smile onto his lips. He starts to speak but Zayn, bless him, beats him to it. “Wouldn’t miss this for the world, now, would we, Louis?” “Eh, yeah, that’s right.” “Aces. Do you guys want to come outside with myself and these two for a smoke? I think Harry’s got a joint or two on him, in case you’re interested. I mean, unless you’re like, undercover police or something. If that's the case, we’ve only got beer and smokes.”

He talks a lot, Louis notes to himself, but finds himself following Zayn when he, being his unbelievably smooth self, says something equally as funny in response and starts walking towards the door behind the three boys.

“I don’t want to be rude,” the fireman one starts as they reach the small carpark behind the pub, “but what’re your names again? I mean, I probably know them but I really don’t. We haven’t really talked.” He looks friendly so Louis decides to go for it. “’m Louis, he’s Zayn. I’m sorry but I’m not sure if I know you lot’s names either.” That makes the blond one let out an unexplainable cackle, and even the two other ones chuckle a little. Probably at the blond one, not with him, Louis hopes. “I’m Liam,” the fireman, eh, Liam, then explains. “He’s Niall, and Harry’s…” He looks around, a bit confused. “Where’s Harry?”

Just then the bambi sprints from behind the corner. “Sorry, I was having a wee.” He keeps running, probably a bit drunk until he reaches his friends, but as he tries to stop he trips over his gangly, massive baby deer feet, and somehow ends up landing on Louis. He catches him on time, and no one ends on the ground, but it surely is a fairly awkward first encounter. “Oops” the bambi boy giggles as he collects himself and stands up straight, and _god, he’s tall_. A quiet “hi” is all Louis finds himself to be able to say, and he’s definitely not staring at the spider leg bambi who just literally ran into his arms.

“Yeah, that’s Harry.” “Yeah, I’m Harry.”

His accent is ridiculous, and right there and then Louis decides that in fact, everything about this boy is ridiculous. Ridiculously cute. Whatever.

Zayn seems to be as cool as ever when Louis glances at him, just sends him a smirk and goes back to rolling a spliff with the weed he apparently brought on him. Niall is already lighting one, and Louis doesn’t know how to deal with the situation.

Like thirty hours before he was sitting in the staff room thinking about how annoying the three boys were, and now he’s here, about to get high with them? He hasn’t even been given time to process it. But, as long as Zayn is fine with it, so will Louis. So, he decides to roll with it, annoying hippies or not, and grabs the joint out of Zayn’s hands as soon as it is lit.

It’s really downhill from there. They head back inside after a while, and sit around a table. Niall shows up with a tray full of drinks, and Louis, for some odd, incomprehensible reason is enjoying himself surrounded by these people. He’s currently sitting between Zayn and the spider bambi, Harry, on a seat made for two normal people, definitely not for two people and a gangly human fairy giant. Harry still hasn’t said a word, at least that Louis would have heard, but he’s pretty and his leg is warm against Louis’ so he isn’t complaining.

Niall, as he had noticed earlier that day, really is loud, but also funny with his accent and his bottomless pit of a stomach. Louis thinks the Irish boy has probably downed half of the drinks on the tray by himself but still seems to be the least drunk one at the table. Well, after Zayn. Zayn doesn’t get drunk, he just gets different.

Liam turns out to be a real life teddy bear, looking after Niall, asking if everyone is feeling okay, if everyone has got enough to drink, and Louis enjoys it, as weird and not unused to it is. And Zayn, well, he seems to be a bit charmed by the hunky boy, because Louis hasn’t noticed him take his eyes off of the brown eyed boy once. To be quite honest, Louis would be too if there wasn’t the terribly pretty giant sitting next to him, thigh tickling his pleasantly, the heavenly scent of peppermint and weed and alcohol and prettiness filling his head, getting him a different type of drunk.

And Louis, well, he’s not even denying the fact that he wants to speak to this boy. So, he does. “Hi,” he whispers into Harry’s ear so he won’t disturb the others’ conversation. This, apparently, startles the boy who spills some of his drink on the table. “Oops.” “It’s okay,” Louis chuckles, trying to hold back any trace of fond. He reaches to grab a few napkins from the end of the table and gives them to Harry, who proceeds to wipe off the mess he made before turning to look at Louis. “Hi.”

“How are you?” Louis asks as he turns to face the boy again and, well. He had not noticed those eyes before, but now he does and he is still definitely not staring, not at all. He may or may not miss the answer Harry gives him, and Harry may or may not have to snap his fingers in front of Louis’ face to get him back to this planet. “Yes, hi, um, I’m okay.” Harry chuckles a little, and Louis tries to stop himself from looking at his perfectly plump, red lips but fails miserably as that smirk turns into a full on smile when Niall says something funny.

It takes Louis a few seconds to recover from his trance, and when he does, everyone else is laughing at Niall and an elderly lady worker waltzing to an Ed Sheeran song, fuck knows how he ended up there, and it’s all quite nice, and Harry’s leg is still touching Louis’ and he’s okay with that.

The rest of the evening goes like that, no more words changed between Louis and Harry but they’re both engaging in the conversation between all five of them. Turns out, they’re all a right laugh, especially Niall, and Louis kicks himself for not liking them before. It was all stupid, anyway. When he shoots a “oh my god I didn’t know they were nice”-look at Zayn, he just scowls and shakes his head, basically saying Louis is a bloody idiot, that of course they are nice. Stupid Zayn, he always has to be clever and right about everything.

When it’s nearing closing time, the group stumbles out into the street. Niall walks off straight away, yelling a weird combination of obscenities and I love you’s at the boys as he goes. Then it’s Liam and Harry’s time to hop into a taxi as they’re headed to the other side of the town. Liam shakes hands with Louis and Zayn, Harry hugs them. Louis wouldn’t mind drowning into that hug. He might hold on a bit longer than Harry does, but if anyone notices, they don’t mention it.

When Zayn and Liam finally get home, both helping each other up the stairs, they’re wearing bright, drunken smiles and chatting about how nice the evening was. And, Louis has to admit, it really was pleasant. And he hopes, that maybe now he will have four friends in his life, not just one.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry the end was rushed  
> i've got so many plans on this and i'll try to update as often as i can :)


End file.
